On March 14, when Wal mart Stores announced its first foray into Japan, the Bentonville (Ark) retailing giant placed a big bet that it could succeed where countless other foreign companies have failed.

Can Wal mart make a go of it where others have stumbled/ One good sign is that the mass marketer is not rushing blindly. It has taken an initial 6.1% stake in ailing food and clothing chain Seiyu ltd., which it can raise to a controlling 33.4% by year end and to 66.7% by 2007. That gives Wal mart time to hone its strategy or run for exits.

Moreover, after some embarrassing setbacks in Hong Kong and Indonesia last decade, Wal-Mart is learning to adapt to local conditions.

Indeed, Wal-mart needs to get it right overseas because sales growth is flattening out at home. Wal-mart’s international sales grew 10.5% last year, to about $35.5 billion, or 16% of total sales. Operating profit from those sales surged 31% to $1.46 billion. And the company expects international operations to contribute a third of its sales and profit growth in the next three to five years. Hence, Japan is crucial.

So far, however, much of Wal-mart’s overseas growth has come from Britain, Canada and Mexico. Wal-Mart’s Asia business is growing steadily, even if profits remain elusive. While Wal-Mart failed to gain traction in Hong Kong in the 1990s, it is making gains in China, where it now has 19 stores. The strategy is basically to appeal to local tastes which mean selling such exotic fare as live frogs, turtle blood, and whole roasted suckling pigs. Still, shoppers in a shenzhen see a trip to the local Wal-Mart as a “one-day tour” of America. In Korea, where the company already has nine stores, Wal-Mart ran into unexpectedly robust competition from local retailers, but it hopes to break even next year. It aims to open five more stores in 2002. “We will expand at a steady pace in Korea,” says A Wal-Mart official....